The present invention relates to a method of display layout data and a system therefore.
The following references have been known relating to the present invention. These references are suitably cited in the following explanation of the present invention.
Reference 1: "Map Information Expert System GENTLE", by Shimada and Ejiri, a preparatory draft for the Advanced Database System Symposium in 1985, pp 93-101, Information Processing Society of Japan; PA0 Reference 2: "Introduction to Three-Dimensional Graphics based on C Language", by Shigeo Ishii, Gijutsu Hyoronsha, 1985; PA0 Reference 3: "Principles of Database Systems", by Ullman, J. D., Computer Science Press, Potomac, Mayland, 1980; PA0 Reference 4: "Object-oriented Programming: An Evolutionary Approach", by Brad J. Cox, Addison-Wesley Cop. Inc., 1988; PA0 Reference 5: "A multiple prospector and an Automatic Message Propagation Mechanism for Multi-media type Map-based Systems", by Shimade, et. al., Proc. Advanced Database System Symposium, 1989; PA0 Reference 6: "Multi-media Map Information System for Electric Power facilities using Automatic Selective Recognition Method", by Chikada, Shimada, Miyatake and Matsushima, the national meeting of The Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers of Japan, 1988, SD-7-4; and PA0 Reference 7: "Application of Map Information--for forming regional appearance" by, Goji Sasada, Graphic Processing Information Center, 1983.
As one of relevant patent applications, there is the U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 07/630,328, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,868 dated May 11, 1993 titled "Method of Processing Multimedia Data in Multimedia Database and System Therefor" filed on Nov. 29, 1990. One of the inventors of this relevant application (Mr. Shimada) is also one of the inventors of the present application.
Another relevant U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 07/789,005, now pending, titled "Method of Three-dimensional Display of Object-oriented Figure Information and System Therefor" was filed on Nov. 7, 1991, based on the Japanese patent application No. Hei-2-299718 filed on Nov. 7, 1990. The two inventors (Shimada and Kawamura) of this relevant application are also two of the inventors of the present application.
Still another relevant U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 07/799,998, now pending, titled "Method of Managing Information and System Therefore" was filed on Nov. 29, 1991, based on the Japanese patent application No. Hei-2-329106 was filed on Nov. 30, 1990. The two inventors (Shimada and Chikada) of this relevant application are also two of the inventors of the present application. The relevant patent applications are incorporated herein by reference.
In recent years, multistory buildings and underground markets have been developed in the centers of areas. In order to identify details of buildings and houses or the arrangement and location of shops and stores, three-dimensional information, such as the numbers of floors of buildings and the numbers of floors of underground markets has been employed in addition to conventional two-dimensional information such as provided on typical maps. Under such a situation, in each of public enterprises and architectural and civil engineering enterprises, three-dimensional map displays, which take account of heights of buildings as well as figures of the buildings above the ground surface level, have come to be required because the conventional two-dimensional map displays are not sufficient in performing works, such as facility inspections and urban designs for which maps are used.
In order to meet these requirements, various kinds of three-dimensional bird's-eye displays using design data have already been carried out in the field of an architectural CAD, as shown in the reference 7. In the architectural CAD, data of buildings and the like are converted into complete three-dimensional data and stored in a data base. By using this data the buildings and highways can be displayed in a three-dimensional manner when they are to be viewed from any desired direction.
Therefore, a method would be considered wherein various attribute data of the buildings having three-dimensional characteristics are displayed in one-to-one corresponding relation with the buildings, after the three-dimensional bird's-eye display is made.
Further, a method of applying shading to the display considering a light source has been proposed recently, in addition to a mere three-dimensional display using a wire frame, so that a display having more reality has gradually been made possible.
However, in application of the method shown in the above reference 7 to a map information system as an example of a figure information system, it is necessary to obtain figure data of a building as data of a complete three-dimensional coordinate system (x, y, z) as in the architectural and civil engineering CAD. Therefore, the following four problems exist.
As the first problem, in the case of a map information system, there is a heavy load for displaying various kinds of attribute information in correspondence with figure elements on a two-dimensional display of map data which include a large amount of figure elements such as roads and house frames. Therefore it is not practical for a complete three-dimensional display of the map data compared with the architectural CAD system. In other words, it is assumed that the map data is merely stored in a data base which map data includes coordinate data indicative of figure elements of roads and buildings, and symbols for churches, banks, and the like, and texts for display. Therefore, in the case of retrieving attribute data by using a displayed building or text as a key for the retrieval, a z-coordinate of a height direction needs to be searched for route search processing and search processing within a near range in addition to two-dimensional coordinates (x, y). Therefore, the time for executing various retrieval processings is expected to become extremely long.
As a second problem, in a map information system, in order to obtain complete detailed data of three-dimensional coordinates for buildings as defined in the architectural CAD system, it is necessary to obtain such detailed data by searching data associated with each building, resulting in an enormous amount of search processes. Therefore, it is almost impossible to completely build a three-dimensional data base for this purpose.
As a third problem, when map data for a wide three-dimensional area, such as an underground market, is to be displayed, displays of houses and tenants on each floor tend to interfere with each other in many cases, as shown in FIG. 30, resulting in a very complicated display which is difficult to understand. Therefore, a detailed instruction cannot be made such that a part of the result of the display cannot be processed by designating this part by means of a mouse.
As a fourth problem, in the case of displaying various kinds of attribute data on the above three-dimensional display, it is expected to be extremely difficult to confirm at a later stage a corresponding relation between buildings and an attribute.